{"id":462214,"date":"2026-05-22T19:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/462214\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T19:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:09:12","slug":"nicki-minaj-hypes-up-elon-musk-at-failed-spacex-launch-see-the-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/462214\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicki Minaj hypes up Elon Musk at failed SpaceX launch \u2013 See the moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starships are meant to fly, but Nicki Minaj<\/a> will have to wait a bit longer for takeoff.<\/p>\n

The Grammy-nominated rapper, 43, attended SpaceX’s flight test<\/a> for the Starship spacecraft in Texas on Thursday, May 21. However, the flight was later postponed due to technical issues.<\/p>\n

Seven months have elapsed since billionaire\u00a0Elon Musk<\/a>‘s commercial spaceflight company last launched the world’s largest rocket from South Texas. Since that\u00a0October test flight<\/a>, SpaceX teams have been working to prepare a next-generation version of Starship\u00a0for its highly-anticipated debut<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new Starship prototype model, known as Version 3, is designed to travel and refuel in orbit, enabling long spaceflights to distant destinations like the moon and Mars.<\/p>\n

Minaj was ready to mark the occasion, attending the launch in a black graphic T-shirt<\/a> that read “Starship,” according to event footage<\/a> shared on social media. The rapper, who was present approximately six minutes before the scheduled launch time, gushed about her excitement in a brief interview with some of SpaceX’s on-site crew.<\/p>\n

“I’ve launched,” Minaj joked, later adding, “This is historic. This is a major moment, y’all.”<\/p>\n

The “Starships”<\/a> emcee also praised SpaceX founder Musk during her remarks: “Major shout-out to Elon. Thank you for everything that you’re doing for humanity.”<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Minaj, SpaceX\u00a0later scrapped<\/a>\u00a0its Starship flight test, due to what Musk described in an\u00a0X post<\/a>\u00a0as an issue with a faulty “hydraulic pin,” which was “holding the tower arm in place.” Another launch attempt is scheduled for Friday, May 22, at 6:30 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

SpaceX launch trouble: Elon Musk company scrubs Starship V3 launch<\/a><\/p>\n

Minaj has also been a cheerleader for Musk’s former political colleague, President Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The outspoken rapper has found herself in the political spotlight in recent months due to her vocal allyship with the president. In January, Minaj\u00a0attended the Trump Accounts Summit<\/a>, touting herself as “probably the president’s No. 1 fan.” That same month, she attended a screening of first lady\u00a0Melania Trump<\/a>‘s documentary,\u00a0“Melania,”<\/a>\u00a0at the newly renamed\u00a0Trump-Kennedy Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Minaj opened up about her support of\u00a0President Trump<\/a>\u00a0in an interview with\u00a0Time magazine<\/a>\u00a0published Wednesday, May 13.<\/p>\n

Nicki Minaj news: Rapper says ‘many celebrities feel the way I do’ about Trump<\/a><\/p>\n

“Many celebrities feel the way I do, but they don’t say it,” Minaj told the magazine. “Sometimes, you just need one brave person to get the brunt of the impact. I think I am the catalyst for that change.”<\/p>\n

She added: “Hopefully, when they see me and hear me speak and feel my energy, that will make them say, ‘You know what: Who am I afraid of? What am I afraid of?'”<\/p>\n

Contributing: Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nicki Minaj praises Elon Musk at SpaceX launch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starships are meant to fly, but Nicki Minaj will have to wait a bit longer for takeoff. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[605,61,60,4025,22680,24453,15504,82,247,2306,200036,200035],"class_list":["post-462214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-elon-musk","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-launch","tag-melania-trump","tag-nicki-minaj","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex","tag-spacex-launch","tag-starship-spacecraft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}